Funny Little Thing Called Love
by Princess Tiger
Summary: You're annoying." That was true. "You're arrogant." Well that was true too. "You only gave up training because Ash beat you." Ouch, that hurt his pride. "And you made me fall in love with you." Now he definitely wasn't expecting that one. Oneshot


**A/N: Before we begin, I shall just say that this story is Ashyboyshipping (Duplica x Gary), Just so you know. Oh and, in case you don't already know, I'm not Satoshi Tajiri and therefore I don't own Pokémon. **

**Funny Little Thing Called Love**

Gary's memory of how he met Duplica was a little hazy. Maybe this was due to the fact he refused to admit to being the arrogant prick he was at the time, and maybe it was because their first meeting had ended with him losing to the green-haired Ditto-lover. His rival, Ash, had suffered the same fate. But whatever happened at that first meeting, Gary gained respect for Duplica, and it turned into friendship.

Which was why he now sat staring at the computer screen in the laboratory that had once been his grandfather's, studying data on Ditto while she danced around the kitchen singing along to 'Papa Don't Preach.'

"_He's says that he's going to marry me, and we can raise a little family_," her voice rang joyously through the lab. Gary smiled; she was singing well.

"Is lunch ready yet?" he shouted, giving up on reading through the data he had collected so far.

"Be patient!" she hollered back, then happily resumed her singing.

Gary sighed and leaned back on his computer chair and began to spin, the exact thing he scolded his six year old goddaughter for doing when she came to visit, the hypocrite.

His thoughts travelled briefly to the raven-haired child who had adopted him as an uncle when she was three. As Duplica put it, she had 'spunk' – much like her mother really.

He shot up in his chair as he realised with horror that today was her seventh birthday. In approximately one hour he was supposed to be at her party with a present. He groaned. Duplica was never going to let him hear the end of this; _the_ Gary Oak forgetting something? That was impossible.

"'Plica!" he shouted, "I completely forgot – it's April's birthday!"

"Well, I'm still making your bacon sandwich. Go catch her a pokémon or something!"

Her response was not the helpful one he had hoped for, but who was he kidding? This was Duplica – they may have been friends but he annoyed her to no end just as she did to him. She didn't yield to his charm, unlike the hoards of excitable female fans that followed him around in his days as a trainer. Some still did. That was part of the reason why he lo- liked her a lot. There was none of the other l-word between him and Duplica. Nuh-uh, none at all.

"Can't you go?" he whined. Yes, whined. Gary Oak had resort to whining to get his way with Duplica Imite. If she had been in the room he would have sunk as low as to use puppy dog eyes with her.

"Not a chance,"she said cheerily, catching the toast as it popped out the toaster. "Now quit whining and go sort out a present quickly – lunch is almost done."

Gary sighed and got up, knowing all attempts to argue were fruitless. In his head, he quickly sorted his pokémon into 'Suitable' and 'Unsuitable.' He obviously couldn't give a Blastoise or a Nidoqueen to a seven year old – that was just asking for trouble. Not even Ash would do that. Well, he wouldn't be _allowed_ to do that – Misty would never let him do anything potentially dangerous when their child was concerned.

He visited his pokémon who were outside. They were dancing around in the paddock reserved for the pokémon belonging to Gary and his close friends.

He walked quickly up to the small Eevee, the recently hatched child of his Umbreon only to be faced with a problem: there were two Eevees. Gary crouched down and studied both pokémon very carefully. He knew one was Duplica's Ditto playing a trick on him, something the pink blob revelled in. Apparently, Gary annoyed it. Another thing Gary knew was that Duplica, whether it was an accident or not, would have his guts for garters if he gave her precious Ditto to April Ketchum.

Duplica called him for lunch but he didn't go inside. Instead, he remained staring at the Eevee and the Ditto that looked like an Eevee for quite some time; in fact, until he lost all feeling in his legs. He sighed and gave up, picking up both pokémon and carrying them inside so Duplica could pick out her Ditto. It was something he wished he'd thought of earlier – he wondered if Duplica had left his bacon sandwich unharmed.

"Duplica," he called, his voice adopting that whiny tone yet again. "Your Ditto's trying to trick me again."

Duplica sighed and stood, putting down Gary's bacon sandwich. She had discovered while her friend was outside that stolen food tasted better. Walking over to Gary, she picked up one of the Eevees. It cried joyfully and immediately transformed back into the pink blob that found pleasure in being the bane of Gary's existence.

"Really, Gary," she said mockingly. "I thought you said you could recognise a Ditto."

"I said I could recognise Mini Dit," he corrected.

"Oh please, even a baby could recognise Mini Dit."

Gary sighed and went upstairs for a nap. Duplica had no idea why he needed to, but apparently the prospect of spending three hours in the presence of a gang of hyperactive seven year olds on sugar highs took a lot out of the twenty-nine year old male.

Duplica finished off the delicious sandwich, placed the plate in the sink and went outside to visit the pokémon.

Half an hour later the duo sat on the wooden patio furniture at Ash and Misty's, drinking lemonade and supervising the children playing tag. Pizzas cooked in the oven. Gary was salivating in anticipation.

But the party was quite boring for Gary. He had no interest in playing pass-the-parcel or musical statues, and found the way Duplica eagerly participated quite childish, which, considering the fact that they were children's party games, was a sound judgement.

Unlike April's previous parties, the event passed with no altercations, though that may have been strongly related to the fact that a certain little boy, who sought to tease the Ketchum offspring at every opportunity, was absent.

Ah, young love, there's nothing quite like it – Gary remembered the days when he would insult the girl he liked just to get a rise out of her. For him, it was a pity that pursuing females wasn't so simple past puberty. Though it wasn't the pursuing part that Gary had the problem with, it was the committing part. He was fast approaching the big 3-0 and was still hopping from woman to woman like a frog jumping from lily pad to lily pad.

It was something Ash, who got married at twenty-two, loved to point out frequently. Often, when he brought it up, the topic of Duplica also followed. Ash thought Gary should 'man up and marry her already.' Of course, Gary's reaction to that the first time should have been indication enough that it wasn't an option and should be forgotten about, but Ash was incredibly dense and insisted upon bringing it up. He often came home from Tuesday meetings, telling his wife that the Pokémon Researcher was giving him the silent treatment again. But Misty didn't pay any heed to it – she didn't pretend to understand the inner workings of the male mind.

After the children had gone home or been sent to bed, Ash, Misty, Duplica, and Gary sat around the patio table talking about various things such as the weather, work and how technology had gotten ridiculously complicated in the past few years. Fortunately for Gary, the subject of his hopeless love life was not brought up (Ash would never dare to bring up the feelings he thought Gary had for Duplica when she was present, especially since Gary was not in love with his friend, or so he liked to think). As the summer sun sank below the horizon, Duplica and Gary decided that it was time to retire for the night and started to head home along the path that wound up the grassy hill to the Oak Laboratory.

When the pair were about a hundred yards from the house, the huge black cloud that had been hanging over Pallet all day finally split open and unleashed an almighty downpour on the Southern Kanto town.

Wasting no time, Gary seized Duplica and threw her over his shoulder to make a mad dash for the house. He fumbled with his key and once he was inside, he placed Duplica down on one of the wooden kitchen chairs. Despite the short distance to the house, both were soaked through – their hair and clothes were plastered to their skin.

"I'll get a towel," Gary said, leaving his friend alone in the room. As he came back along the passageway, he heard Duplica talking to herself.

"You're a prick at times," she said, talking to the vase of flowers. Ah... he knew who she was talking about.

"You're annoying." That was true, he could ignore that one.

"You're arrogant." Well, that was true too.

"You only gave up being a trainer because Ash beat you." Ouch. Now that one hurt his pride - it was only _partially_ true.

"And you made me fall in love with you."

Okay, he wasn't expecting that. Gary dropped the towels. He bent down and quickly gathered them. The flurry of movement alerted the young woman and she whirled around. Horrified wide eyes met shocked wide eyes but nothing was said as a dumbstruck Gary handed her the towels and left the room.

Things were indescribably awkward the following morning. Duplica was silent and had taken an unusually keen interest in her mug, while Gary, having recovered from the initial shock, sat there with a slightly smug face – Duplica loved him!

By eleven o'clock, he still didn't know why he was still celebrating inside**,** I mean, of course he wasn't in love with her. This was Duplica – she was his friend and he should be nice to her. She probably thought she'd ruined their friendship, but that wasn't true. He was _celebrating_ that she loved him back and had been for the past twelve hours. Wait she loved him _back_? Did that mean he loved her?

He groaned and started to hit himself on the forehead with a ring-binder file for not realising it sooner. Argh, he was an idiot!

Duplica wandered into the room and was understandably concerned for both her friend's sanity and his welfare as he sat smacking himself with office supplies.

"Gary... are you okay?" she asked, a quizzical look replacing the despondent one she had worn the whole morning.

"I'm fine," he said, putting the file down and turning his chair around to face her. "I'm just a little irritated for realising something now that I probably should've realised earlier," he explained.

"Oh."

"Hmm."

"What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he answered smugly.

She crossed the room and stood in front of him, fixing him with an intimidating stare. It didn't work.

She leaned forward, placing her hands on the arm-rests of his computer chair so she could stare him directly in the eye. Gary couldn't resist himself. He was a man after all. A man who had just had a very important epiphany.

He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers briefly then pulled away with a smile while she stared at him wide-eyed.

She blinked.

"What was that?" she asked dazedly.

"I love you too," he said, still wearing the same giddy smile.

**~**~**

Not even Ash's incessant teasing about being right could dampen Gary's stellar mood as he sat fidgeting in his chair, restless with anticipation.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later," the raven-haired man said excitedly.

Gary ignored Ash and stood up at the sound of the Ketchums' front door opening. Two happy-sounding females entered.

"Hey, 'Plica. Hey, Red," Gary greeted the pair. "How was your shopping trip?"

"Brilliant," the Ditto-trainer gushed. "I bought shiny red shoes!"

"Anything for me?" he asked.

"The shoes could be for you, I suppose," she said, smiling suggestively.

Ash wrinkled his nose in disgust, "Can we leave the bedroom talk for later?"

Gary smiled down at his girlfriend. "Hey, as long as you don't love the shoes more than me."

"I couldn't love anything more than you," she said and kissed him quickly.

Ash grimaced. "Seriously, Gary – you've gone soft."

Duplica placed her bags down in the hallway. "I'm going to see April."

"Let me go with you," Gary said, following her up the stairs to the little girl's bedroom.

Duplica knocked on the door and entered the pale pink and lilac room.

"Auntie Duplica!" April cheered, hurtling towards Duplica and throwing her arms around her neck in a hug. While Duplica spun the girl round, Gary crept into the room and began to write upon the blackboard.

Duplica placed the girl down with her back to Gary, but the little girl's gasp made her turn around. She, too, gasped at the words written on the board between the wobbly daisies. There were only two words, but those two words made her want to squeal and jump up and down like an excited teenage girl.

Instead, she launched herself at her boyfriend and pulled him into an enormous hug.

The words?

'_Marry me?_'

**A/N: Okay so the inspiration for this came randomly and the pairing isn't exactly common, but I really like this story, the pairing (Ashyboyshipping) and Duplica is now my favorite character, she's kicked Ritchie, Gary and Eusine out of their joint position at the top. **

**Like it? Love it? Lump it? Please do tell, reviews are greatly appreciated. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Princess Tiger**


End file.
